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Outskirts
Laws *None who bear Kindred Vitae within them or on their person may enter Billington State Forest without the permission of the Reagent and informing the City Council first. Places of Interest 'Billington State Forest '(Location) Just west of the Recycling and Waste Management facility off of the Aylesbury Pike is Billington State Forest. Once hundreds of acres of privately owned woodland, the Billington family ceded the land to the Commonwealth sometime in the early 1960s. For lack of other plans, the state declared the area protected forest and it joined the state park system as Billington State Forest in 1965. The area has no campgrounds or other visitor amenities, merely barely discernible “hiking trails” winding through the dark pines and oaks. In the heart of the forest is a large clearing with the remains of a large house – Billington’s Mansion – that burned down decades ago. All that is left now are a sizable foundation nearly filled with rainwater, blackened, rotting timbers and junk thrown into the hole by god-knows-who over the years. 'The Stone Tower '(Location) Several hundred yards to the west of the foundation pit, across swampy ground and past a thick copse of trees, stands a lonesome stone-built tower. Standing on a rise of ground in a gully, which becomes a stream with the spring thaws yet dries up by mid-summer, the tower is 20 feet tall and some 12 feet wide at its base. Though it looks to have once had a roof, that component has long since fallen away into the hollow interior of the tower. A single arched stone doorway yawns in shadow, providing access to the interior. A narrow flight of stone steps set into the interior of the tower spirals upward to a small platform. Along the stair route, chiseled into the stones, is a primitive but impressive bas-relief design that repeats itself from the base to the platform. From the topside platform, with the roof gone, one gets a nice view of the surrounding territory. It is very nearly silent near the tower, even the natural sounds of the forest muffled, and the place is dark and disturbing. Local teens sometimes find the tower a good location for partying, as attested to by an assortment of empty beer cans, bottles, and condom wrappers half-buried in the forest detritus. However, the atmosphere of the place is subtly but powerfully oppressive, and people find themselves depressed if spending any length of time at the place. Thus, it is usually abandoned, though on occasion a visitor might stumble on a drinking party in progress or a young amorous couple looking for a little privacy. 'Pierce Reservoir '(Location) A project long planned by Massachusetts officials and finally realized in 1934 as one of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” work programs, Pierce Reservoir was created by flooding a wide, shallow valley west of Arkham, completely inundating the village once known as Clark’s Corners and surrounding countryside. The reservoir is named after the Pierce homestead, a large tract of farmland once owned for generations by a family of that name, now a part of the reservoir’s spread. Pierce Reservoir supplies Arkham with its drinking and supply water. The reservoir is bordered to the north by Kingsmouth's athletic facilities, and its other boundaries are girded by commercial sprawl. A slim strip of green grass, trees, and a jogging path do enclose the reservoir, buffering it from the parking lots and strip malls. No watersports or swimming are allowed in the reservoir, though police on occasion respond to reports of bathers or the occasional jet ski brazenly transgressing posted prohibitions. 'Snake's Den Cave '(Location) Behind a cluster of cul-de-sac housing developments to the west of Kingsmouth and past swampy lowlands is an expanse of wooded territory that hosts “Snake’s Den Cave.” With the proliferation of commercial, industrial, and residential development surrounding this area, it is actually difficult to get to and explore. One has to trespass across backyards and fenced parking lots to enter these woods. In the middle of this wooded ground is a cave formed of dark granite boulders, left here by the glacial movement of the last ice age. For some unknown reason, the cave is a haven for Massachusetts’ two breeds of poisonous snake, the timber rattlesnake and the copperhead. Both species are increasingly rare in all parts of the state, so their congregating here is nothing short of remarkable. At the rear of the cave is a narrow glacial fissure, too small for most adults to squeeze through. Beyond is a rarely-visited rear chamber. Within is found a weird pylon of rough-hewn stone standing in the center of the uneven cavern floor. On the dark, glistening damp of the rear granite wall lies the faint carvings of an arch over a large hand. 'The Hilltop Burying Ground '(Location) On a high hilltop overlooking Kingsport, near the Hill Road, stands this small, neglected graveyard. The graveyard was used for only a short period during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when some of Kingsport's families declined to inter their dead in the churchyard on Central Hill. Rumors of that time had it that the dead were not safe buried in Central Hill. There are fewer than fifty graves here, marked with worn and blackened headstones leaning this way and that. The earliest date of death that can be made out is 1682; the latest is 1734. 'The Witch Wood '(Location) Not quite a mile west of Kingsport, beside the lonely track aptly called Hangman's Road, stands a small marble obelisk that has become something of a morbid tourist attraction. A bronze plaque mounted on the stone tells of the witch-scare in Kingsport in 1692, which resulted in the hanging of thirteen suspected witches. None of the slain are named. The plaque summarizes that the Salem witch hysteria extended to Kingsport, and that those executed were - like Salem witches - innocent of the charges. According to this tale, the witches were left hanging from the gibbet for days on end, and a nearby path allegedly leads to where the witches were later buried in unmarked graves. The well-worn path does indeed lead off to a hidden vale where thirteen ancient unmarked graves are huddled together, encircled by a six-foot-high fence of iron bars. Some people say that on certain windy nights, the creaking of a gibbet can be heard, sometimes from as far away as Hill Road or even the west side of Kingsport. Hangman's Road is a favorite place to take a date for a walk in the night air. There's nothing like a good horror story to get two people to huddle closer together. Category:Arkham Outskirts Category:Arkham Category:Outlying Regions Category:Locations Category:Claimed territories